At a technical level, the Amazon eero mesh certainly isn't cutting edge. It's a Wi-Fi 5 product, so there's no fancy 802.11ax compatibility here, as you can find with other mesh systems. It's only dual band, so the actual signal has to be shared with mesh networking information on your network. Other pricier systems add backhaul bands to keep that configuration information separate.
The basic eero mesh is also limited to a maximum download throughput of 550Mbps, so if you are lucky enough to be sitting on a gigabit NBN connection, you won't be able to push all of it through the basic Amazon eero mesh system.
Amazon does sell a Wi-Fi 6 based unit, the Amazon eero mesh Plus overseas, but it's not officially available here in Australia. What we get is the lower cost, lower spec unit instead.
Given the limitations I was introducing to the eero mesh by deliberately stressing it, and by its own technical limitations, I wasn't expecting much in the way of overall performance.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the test results that I was able to get from the Amazon eero mesh system in my home environment.
As always, Wi-Fi interference reasons can vary massively depending on your environment. I live in a five-bedroom Sydney suburban house with, as previously noted, an extension where my home office sits that creates a very solid Wi-Fi "dead zone" in it.
That's a good representation of a dwelling where mesh systems should make a big difference, but it's not your home or office, and your experiences may differ. Still, it's what Finder has used for every mesh test to date to keep comparisons as much in a like-for-like way as feasible.
As I've done for previous tests, I placed one eero node near my home's NBN 250 HFC connection. A second node was placed in a room nearby and then the final node in my home office once I'd configured it elsewhere.
First, I measured RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) to check signal sharing and strength using a MacBook Pro 16 in each location. That gives us a picture of signal propagation across the network. Here's how the Amazon eero mesh compared:
Those figures were way better than I'd expected, with great consistency even from the far position where any Wi-Fi signal tends to falter.
Signal strength is great if you like technical detail, but people buy mesh networking systems for the purpose of sharing around files and especially Internet connectivity to our ever-expanding range of home and office devices. To test this, I used Finder's Broadband Speed Test through my Aussie Broadband 250/25 HFC NBN connection.
Here I thinned the field a little, because for earlier mesh tests, I was running on a 100/40 connection since that was what was available to me at the time. Prior to that, it was a 115/5-at-best Telstra HFC connection. Boiling it down to just the NBN connections, I had to convert the speeds achieved relative to the maximum available on the line at that time to a percentage.
Because of NBN Co's current 40% CVC boost due to the coronavirus pandemic, my line has been running at over its stated download capacity, so I first took a cabled Ethernet test to get a baseline kind of figure for downloads, which sat at 265/20 on average. I then tested the Amazon eero mesh in my near, mid and far positions, averaged out its figures as a percentage of the total to compare. Here's how the Amazon eero mesh compares:
The Amazon eero mesh genuinely surprised me because, at a technical level, it's definitely below the likes of Google mesh or similar higher priced systems that utilise better Wi-Fi technology and faster total peak rates. However, in real-world use, the Amazon eero mesh balances its network load exceptionally well, especially given its asking price.
It did dip in terms of upload speeds during the test period, and that may relate to its dual-band nature and the way it prioritises the flow of data. If you do a lot of uploading – for video streaming purposes, for example – this might be an issue, but for most users, downloads always overwhelm uploads anyway.
One feature that you'd somewhat expect on the Amazon eero mesh would be Alexa compatibility, given that it's a key selling point of rival Google mesh. To date, though, Amazon has resisted the urge to build in microphones and speakers into the Amazon eero mesh system, so if that's an important consideration for you, you'll need to look elsewhere. Interestingly on this score, it is compatible with Apple's HomeKit if you're already wired up for your smart home that way.